Return On Investment When Using Technology And Data - Jeremy Wilson, from the 2018 Conservation Tillage and Technology Conference, March 6 - 7, Ada, OH, USA. More presentations at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZBwPfKdlk4SB63zZy16kyA

1. ROI of Technology & Data
JEREMY W WILSON
CROP IMS LLC

2. Questions for You
• Who thinks $6.50 corn or $12.00 Soybeans will return in the next
few months?
• How many of you calculate the ROI on every acre of your farm?
• What makes a good farmer?
• Someone who understands continual improvement
• Someone who strives to extract every $ of value from their land
• Someone who knows more about their acre than their competitors know
about their own acres
• Someone who can produce a profit from the WORST acre in the county

3. Tools Used on Farm
• Intensive Soil Sampling
• VRA of all Crop Nutrition Products
• Variety mapping to calculate yield by hybrid
• Application data to document Crop Protection Products

4. Why Do I invest in Technology to Collect Quality Data
• Builds history of your fields over time
• Gives you necessary information for analysis and reporting
• Verify results of agronomic changes
• Potential to increase land value with history of high quality
production

5. Why Should You Consider Comprehensive Data Services?
• Must identify the limiting
factor to yield
• Could be fertility
• Could be variety selection
• Could be other factors
Liebig’s Law

6. Let’s Run the Numbers
• Hardware Purchases
Technology $/Row $/Tractor or
Implement
Total Cost
RTK Steering $12000 $12000
Electric Drive
Planter control
$2000 $32000 $32000
Down
Pressure
Control
$1000 $16000 $16000
Yield
Monitoring
$3600 $3600
$63600

7. Let’s Run the Numbers
• Hardware Sales
• $63,600, 5 year useful life=$12,720 per year for planter control and Yield
• Average grower 1500 acres annually=$8.48/acre/year
• Data services
• Intensive soil sampling and recommendations $2.50/acre/year
• Training, support, data collection on displays $4.00/acre
• Comprehensive data analysis $2.00/acre
• Total data management package $8.50/acre/year

8. Planting
Data
Fertility
Application
Imagery
CP
Application
Scouting
Data
Yield Data
Irrigation
Data
Soil Data
Soil Test, CE Data, Topo Data
TillageData
Understanding Quality Data Collection

9. Planting
Data
Fertility
Application
Imagery
CP
Application
Scouting
Data
Yield Data
Irrigation
Data
Soil Data
Soil Test, CE Data, Topo Data
TillageDataUnderstanding Quality Data Collection

10. Intensive soil sampling and recommendations
• Why “guess” what a crop is going to produce, when we know what
the crop produced in the past.
• Technology on the farm today allows you to manage crop nutrition
better today than ever before.
• Over-application of fertilizers may negatively impact the
environment. Today, it is important to utilize fertilizers in an
efficient manner while ensuring sufficient soil nutrition for
maximum profitable yields.(Fulton)

14. Yule and Lawrence
(2007) reported a
significant economic
loss ($15-$21 acres/yr)
as a result of
inaccurate fertilizer
application for a New
Zealand dairy farm
with a 24% to 80%
variation for applied
fertilizer.

18. Fertility Cost Analysis
Type Tons Price/Ton Fertilizer
Cost
Application
Cost
Total Cost
VRA 9 $423 $3807 $672 $4479
VRA/No
Build > 70 P
6 $423 $2538 $602 $3140
Flat Rate 11 $423 $4653 $480 $5133
When you compare VRA with No Build >70P to Flat rate almost $20.00 savings.

19. Average Gain after Expenses on Precision Application
of P and K (Corn)
• 39,475 Acres of Data
• $6.10 Gain / $3.90 Investment per year
•$1.56 ROI

20. Comprehensive Data Analysis
• Let data assist you in better understanding of how agronomic
changes affected the field profitability
• Help you quantify variability of fields
• Technology allows you to conduct “in your field trials”
• More years of data = More possible questions that can be asked
• Multi-year dataset can only be assembled by collecting the first
dataset

21. Soil Type Data

22. Yield Data to Drive Field Trial Location

23. Yield Data to Drive Field Trial Location

24. Field Trial Results

25. Application Data to Compare CP Products
Hybrid 2

26. Application Data to Compare CP Products

27. Application Data to Verify Agronomic Changes

29. Planting Data to Drive Seed Decisions
Hybrid 2

30. Planting Data to Drive Seed Decisions
Hybrid 2

31. Management
Units
• Used to potentially
define areas within
the field to consider
new management
• Will provide starting
point to try intense
management zones

32. Emerging technologies that could produce ROI
• “New” Sensors
• IoT

33. “New” Sensors
• Precision Plantings SmartFirmer
• Veris Technologies U3 Soil EC, pH and Organic Matter cart
• See & Spray Technology being developed by Blue River Technologies
and others

34. Veris Soil pH to Management Units

35. More Data Points=More Learning

36. Internet of Things (IoT)
• Basis of IoT is connecting sensor to low speed and low cost Internet
connections
• Companies are building new networks to connect new area of Crop
Production to the web
• This will bring new learning to producing crops in the future
• Focused today on High Value Crops and Irrigation, but will be in
Row Crops soon

37. One Example of Network Development

39. You Decide

40. Planting
Data
Fertility
Application
Imagery
CP
Application
Scouting
Data
Yield Data
Irrigation
Data
Soil Data
Soil Test, CE Data, Topo Data
TillageData
Understanding Quality Data Collection

41. Steps to Success
• Set a goal for what you hope to achieve
• Take inventory of the data you collect today
• Take inventory of the technology you own today and understand
the data collection capabilities of this technology
• Pick a field or two that you would like to improve
• Make sure EVERYONE working on your farm knows you plans and
goals
• If you feel like you need help in this process, DON’T be afraid to ask
for help

42. Summary
• Technology and Data collection brings value to our farm and
positive ROI
• Don’t be afraid to consider new technology or services
• Make sure the technology you purchase will bring return on
investment to your farm
• Don’t be afraid to partner with a Trusted Service Provide to
understand the ROI of technology and data to your farm
• Now is a GREAT time to start using the data you have collected to
improve your profitability

43. Questions?
JEREMY W. WILSON
CROP IMS LLC
Thanks for the opportunity speak!

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